Laxman Utekar finds hero 'Ranga Rao' from his village for TAPAAL

September 17, 2014 3:47:06 PM ISTBy Glamsham Editorial

Bollywood cinematographer Laxman Utekar, who has donned the director’s hat for the first time with Marathi film TAPAAL, is gearing up for the film’s release next week. While it was TAPAAL’s script writer, creative producer and presenter Mangesh Hadawale, of TINGYA fame, who helped Laxman cast the lead actors, we were curious to know how he zeroed in on child actor Rohit Utekar, for Ranga Rao’s role.

CHILD ACTOR ROHIT UTEKAR IN TAPAAL

“We were very clear since the beginning that the language and flavour of the character had to be from my village (Poladpur, near Mahad, on Mumbai-Goa highway). So three months before the shoot could start, Ashish and I took auditions for Rangya's character in different schools in and around Poladpur. We auditioned in almost all schools in that region and were tired of hunting the right face, but we didn't get one. Interestingly, one fine day I was sitting at my village home, thinking about what to do next, I discussed this thing with my brother. He suggested that why don't we search in the school behind our house and that is when I went there and took principal’s permission to audition the kids,” reveals Laxman.

He continues, “While we were taking the audition, the sun was about to set and we saw someone trying to create a shadow on the faces of kids giving audition. I started getting irritated with that. When I turned back to check who is doing it, I saw a kid standing on the pole on which we hoist the flag, creating the shadow. When I asked him what are you doing he said nothing. But basically he was trying to grab attention. I asked him to come down and tried clicking him. He didn't stand straight for even a second. And that is when I thought that he is perfect for Rangya’s role. Interestingly, when I asked this boy, whether he has loved and proposed anybody, to which he replied in the affirmative. He shared that he wrote ' I love you ' on rice chapati by using sketch pen....And I found my Rangya!”

Produced by Maitreya Mass Media and distributed by Pickle Entertainment, starring the likes of Nandu Madhav, Veena Jamkar, Milind Gunaji, Urmila Kanetkar and introducing Rohit Utekar, TAPAAL is all set to release on 26th September 2014.